After a strong start, Season 2 of HBO Max‘s Peacemaker has been able to maintain a certain level of excitement throughout its run. Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 4, “Need I Say Door,” shows the first sign of slipping. While there are some fun gags and an interesting reveal here and there, the Peter Sollett-directed episode gives the impression of a show spinning its wheels before it can get to the good stuff, so to speak. What exactly made this week’s episode more of a shrug than the slam dunk of previous weeks? Let’s dive in.
Not a whole lot happened in Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 4, so instead of an all-encompassing, beat-by-beat breakdown, this recap is going to discuss the major events. Starting from the beginning, James Gunn‘s script puts the audience 35 years in the past. Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick) and his two sons, Chris and Keith, are hunting in the woods. There, they discover a withering grey alien.
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The design is the most inspired part of the episode, its weird spindly limbs and eyes on the side of its head an intriguing design choice. Before they can ponder any of that, Auggie shoots the alien dead, despite Chris’s pleas, leading the three to discover the Quantum Unfolding Chamber that gives them access to the pocket dimension.
It’s greatly appreciated to finally gain some insight into how this technology came into the possession of the Smiths. Moreover, this opening sequence shows just how abusive the parental dynamic in their unconventional unit really was.
Unfortunately, neither the alien nor Chris’ familial trauma plays much of a part this week beyond the opening. Rather, we cut to a team-up of ARGUS agents led by Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodríguez) en route to the home of the adult Chris/Peacemaker (John Cena).
Through no fault of Rodríguez, Bordeaux still lacks much of any sort of definition, a nondescript adversary to the title character, and that’s about it. Really, most of ARGUS, save for Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows), are fairly uninteresting diversions that are starting to drag the show down more and more. The same goes for Michael Rooker‘s Red St. Wild, who is accompanying John Economos (Steve Agee) en route to Chris’ home.
“Need I Say Door” does nothing to make Bordeaux an engaging character.
The idea behind Red St. Wild is almost funny: an eagle hunter with a bloodlust who is basically cosplaying as indigenous. In practice, it represents the worst of James Gunn’s writing tendencies, presenting an edgy concept without much elaboration and expecting the audience to laugh.
Michael Rooker seems like he’s on autopilot here, not throwing in the extra effort necessary to sell an absurd character like this. Thankfully, as soon as Red takes aim at Eagly, Economos knocks him out and texts Chris to leave the house. Chris complies, quite quickly, and after a well-choreographed but all too brief fight with Rip Jagger aka Judomaster (Nhut Le), who is a part of the ARGUS team, he escapes.
After making it out, Chris texts Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) to pick him up. Adebayo obliges and the two go to a remote cabin where Chris is planning on moving the pocket dimension portal using the same technology his family took from the alien at the beginning of the episode.
After a heart-to-heart with Adebayo and with some help from Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), Chris begins the process of moving the portal, which causes all manner of items to be sucked into the cabin. It almost looks like something out of an Evil Dead movie, and combined with the stress of the ARGUS team trying to get into Chris’ original portal in his house, this scene is probably the best thing the episode has going for it.
The portal has been successfully moved to the cabin. Meanwhile, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) meets with Rick Flag, Sr. (Frank Grillo). Once again, Flag is a bit of a wet blanket, but the context of their conversation is interesting —he wants to give Harcourt employment back in ARGUS under the condition that she reveals Chris’s location. Coincidentally, Chris reaches out to Harcourt for a meet-up, which she responds to and then tips off the ARGUS team to, setting up an ambush for the next episode.
Despite John Cena, Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 4 winds up being more of a dud than anything else.
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 4 ends on a bizarre, though undoubtedly intriguing, note. Red St Wild, his “third eye” having been opened, meditates, only for his spirit to leave his body. In this strange out-of-body experience, he locates Eagly and the cabin Chris is staying at. This will certainly lead to more exciting developments next week, but what about this week?
Well, there’s no way around it, Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 4 is kind of a dud. Stalling out developments to pad out the runtime, failing to make what is here interesting, and containing only a few moments of actual excitement, “Need I Say Door” is the exact kind of filler episode that Peacemaker seemed incapable of having. With so many balls in the air, at least solace can be had knowing it’s very unlikely next week will be as much of a misstep in the DC Films series.
Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 4, is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes released every week.
